Barnard Castle are through to the final of the National Schools Under-18 Cup again.

And they are hoping England centre Matthew Tait will be able to line up for them against Colston's Collegiate School in the final at Twickenham on April 3.

Tait will be on international duty with England in the IRB Under-19 World Championships in South Africa but after he helped Barny beat Campions, from Hornchurch 17-12 in the semi-finals at Castlecroft on Saturday, coach Martin Pepper hopes he will be able to call on his star centre.

"It's something that we need to talk about with Matthew this week," said Pepper. "It's something we avoided before the semi-final but he has been selected by England which is obviously a great honour for him.

"But this is his last year at school, he's playing with his mates and that is also a big incentive for him. We need to sit down and consider all the options, even whether we might be able to fly him back for the final."

The fact that Barnard Castle were edged out by Oakham in last year's Twickenham final is another incentive.

Barnard Castle's tries, all scored in the first half, came from Tait, Phil Dawson and Ross Batty with Tait landing one conversion.

Campion, who were 0-17 down at the break, recovered well with centre Dominic Joughin and left wing Andrew Bartlett scoring tries.

Colston's meanwhile will be without their two England Under-19 internationals, winger Tom Varndell-Dawes and scrum-half Warren Fury.

Bristol-based Colston's have not picked the pair for any of their Cup games knowing that they would be unavailable for the April 3 final.